Infected
by CallMeRavenKing
Summary: The Doctor and Donna find themselves in Canada 2013 in the midst of an epidemic. A mutated form of fungus is spreading across the world and the Doctor must find a cure before he too becomes infected! (I suck at synopses, just read it! Originally written as a Screenplay but adapted into novel form.) Rated T for probable difficult themes and character death.
1. Chapter 1

A strange sound filled the badlands and echoed off the canyon walls. If anyone had been around to hear it they may have described it as the sound of the air being wrenched apart. Or, if they really listened and didn't try to romanticized it, the sound of a badly asthmatic lorry reversing. A pair of deer who had been resting in the shade of a rock overhang scrambled to their feet and fled as a rather large blue box phased into existence.

The door of said blue box flew open and a rather ruffled looking man in, what appeared to be, his late thirties swaggered out.

"Earth!" he declared as he stretched and stiffed, "Canada!" he sniffed again and tugged the jacked of his brown pinstriped suit back into place, "20 what...? 2013. What are we doing here? Nothing happened this year! Well, North Korea threatened to declare war on America but that didn't go very far. Oh! And there was a meteor in Russia," he turned back to the box and yelled inside, "Donna you coming?"

A female voice exploded from within, seeming to come from farther away than you would think was possible. Judging by the size of the box in question.

"Oi! I'm coming! Keep your shirt on!" the source of the voice appeared. It was a woman in her mid-thirties with ginger hair and an expression that didn't quite match her voice at the moment, "you could get lost in there! What are we doing here, Doctor?

"I dunno..." the man, seemingly called the Doctor paused, "but the TARDIS doesn't usually drop us off somewhere for no reason," he suddenly grinned an infectiously, "let's go take a look then, shall we?"

With that, he whirled and began racing around like a caffeinated five-year-old.

"Look at all this sedimentary rock!" he ran an appreciative hand over the face of the canyon wall, "think of how many years it took to get all these layers. It's fascinating!"

Donna had wandered off in a different direction, obviously less than pleased at where they had ended up. Then she stopped, a look of horror slowly moving across her face.

"Doctor...?"

"And the stuff that must be preserved in there..." the Doctor trailed off as he ran a silver wand with a glowing blue end over the layers in the rock, "what I wouldn't give to see some of those. Though I could probably just go back in time and..."

"DOCTOR!" Donna's call was louder this time, finally breaking through, "look..." her voice failed and she simply pointed to the ground at her feet.

The Doctor rushed over, concern wrinkling his brow until he saw what she was pointing at, and then he too stood still.

Laying there, on the canyon floor was the blackened body of a child.

"Oh dear..."

_WeringgrrgrrBADUMBADUMBADUM DUN DUUUN DUN DUUN OOOWEEOOOOO OOOWWEEOOOOO WEOOOO OOO DUNN DUNN DUN DUUUN OOOWEOOOO OOO OWEOOO OOOHH OHHHH DUN DUN DUN WAYOWOOOOOOO_

**(A.N. Ladies and Gentlemen - The Doctor Who Theme Song {also, I hope you'll forgive me, I wrote this originally to be a screenplay but I decided to make it into novel format for you people but I'm not sure how exactly its going to turn out! [also, sorry for the short first part but this felt like where the break needed to go!]})**


	2. Chapter 2

The Doctor ran his blue glowing pen thing over the corpse, his face tinged with sorrow. Whatever this young girl, she couldn't have been more than 6 or 7, had died of, it hadn't been pleasant. The child's still features were frozen in a look of mortal agony that wrenched Donna's heart nearly in two.

"What is it Doctor?" she asked quietly, "what happened?"

"I'm not sure..." he admitted as he checked his pen thing, "according to the sonic screwdriver it's some form of fungus, but I've never seen a fungus like this before! At least, not to this scale!"

"What do you mean, not to this scale?"

The Doctor scanned the corpse again as he answered, "well it looks like a cordyceps infection but I've only ever seen it attack insects before. It must have mutated... But how? That shouldn't be possible!"

"And what-" Donna swallowed, "what does this cor-dee-ceps infection do? Exactly?"

"Well it normally infects species of insects in rainforest climates. They breathe in the spores which then implant themselves in its brain. Their joints stop working properly and they become disoriented. When the infection spreads far enough it takes over their minds and they begin to climb up and up, as far as they can. Then the fungus sprouts and erupts out the back of their heads and kills them! If any of the other ants find the infected one, they immediately take them far away from the colony and dispose of them. Kind of like what you would do with someone who had the bubonic plague, but not quite. It's fascinating!" he grinned.

"Fascinating?" Donna gasped, "it's horrible! And you're saying that's what happened to her?"

"Well that's what it looks like to me," the Doctor stated, "But..."

"Hey! You!" the voice came from above them and they looked up to see someone making their way cautiously down the side of the cliff into the valley.

"What are you doing here?" the man asked as he finally came up to them, panting a little from his decent and fumbling for the gun that was strapped across his back.

"Us?" the Doctor asked innocently, "oh we're travellers. Just passing through!

"Travellers?" the man spluttered as he finally brought the gun around to bear on the two of them, "you can't be travellers!"

"And why not?" Donna broke in, incensed that a stranger was pointing a gun at her.

"Well 'cause you're in the middle of an infected zone, that's why!" he spluttered.

"Oh, is this infected?" the Doctor said, "I must have missed the sign!"

"Don't play games with me!" the man all but snarled, "how are you not dead!"

"Should I be?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"Why would he ask you unless he thought so?" Donna countered.

"Good point..." he hesitated, "well then, what is this zone infected with?"

The man laughed, "what planet are you from?"

Donna opened her mouth to give a snarky reply, but the Doctor held up a hand to silence her.

"Don't. Just don't," he said quietly and then turned back to the man, "uh, we're not from around here, can you tell us what's going on?"

The man hesitated and then lowered the gun slightly, "you'd better come with me."

"Right then," the Doctor said briskly, "lead the way!"

Donna grabbed his arm as he passed, "Doctor, you're not seriously going with him are you?" she hissed.

"Of course I am!" he answered quietly, "never argue with a man carrying a gun. And besides, we may just find out exactly what's going on around here!"

**(A.N. A bit of a short one again! Hope you enjoyed it! Review please!)**


End file.
